


A Little Sweet, A Little Spicey (Alot Like Rain)

by AsagiStilinski



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, A little angst, But Not Much, Fluff, M/M, Magic!Stiles, No Dialogue, Scent Marking, Scenting, Scents & Smells, Witch!Stiles, post 5A
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-03
Updated: 2015-09-03
Packaged: 2018-04-18 18:53:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4716764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Scent is an ever-changing thing, it changes with time, with age, with emotion</p><p>Take Stiles for example, he used to have such a sweet scent to him, like honey and sugar and it lingered everywhere he went, now he smells bitter, like spices, and when he leaves Derek can barely tell that he was ever there to begin with</p><p>Derek doesn't like it, he hopes it'll change</p><p>Or: The five times Derek notices Stiles' scent and the one time Stiles notices Derek's</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Little Sweet, A Little Spicey (Alot Like Rain)

**Author's Note:**

> **UNBETA'D**
> 
> I never intended for this to be a no dialogue fic, it's my first one! I hope ya'll like it
> 
> Derek moves to another apartment based on Hoechlin's headcanon that if Derek comes back to Beacon Hills he won't go back to the loft

_If I had to describe your scent, it'd be..._

 

**I.**

The most startling part of coming home is how much Stiles' scent has changed

It used to be sweet with a little salt underneath it, a little hint of rain water under that

But it was mostly sweet, the kind of sweetness you get from opening a package of chocolate and you can get that slight waft right off of the foil

Sweet like the air in early spring, before it gets hot and humid, when it's still bordering on the cold but just sinking into the warmth

Sweet like baby skin and lips that have been curled around a lollipop for an hour

Derek was never a big fan of sweet scents, but he liked Stiles'

When he came back though that was different

The sweetness was low and underlying and the core of Stiles' scent was heavy and bitter

The salt smell was close to unbearable and there was such a heavy air of spice- like pepper and basil- around him that it choked Derek, it was tempting to cough, to sneeze, he itched for the sweet scent to come back because this?

This was unbearable

And there was a scent of rain water like before but it was beneath everything else, a single drop added to an otherwise suffocating aroma of spice

But it was what made the new scent bearable and Derek tried to hone in on that

The worst part perhaps was that Stiles' scent didn't linger the way it used to

When he first met Stiles his scent lingered on everything

Everything he touched, anywhere he'd been, there was a drop of honey-scent in his wake

The older he got the more it faded, wich was normal, all people were like that

Your scent was never as strong as it was the day you were born and never as weak as the day you die

After all, when someone dies their scent is overcome by the smell of death and there's barely a thread left of them to hang onto

But that wasn't the point

It was unusual to Derek that Stiles' scent was as faded as it was now but he thought perhaps that was due to Stiles not touching the way he used to

When he first met Stiles he was all over everything, he had to touch everything atleast five or six times, graze his fingers across something here, place his palm over something there, it was in his nature

Now he kept his hands to himself, his scent curled up around him like he was afraid to let it reach out and touch, and it bothered Derek

When he had gotten his new apartment- several blocks away from the old loft- he had assumed that Stiles' scent would cling to the place just like it had to the loft

That it would be easy and in only a few visits his new place would start to smell like pack again- start to smell like Stiles again

He was wrong

It wasn't that Stiles was in his apartment any less, but his scent just didn't cling like it used to

And when he left every visit, Derek took a deep inhale of the air, and felt a pang of hurt in his chest when he could only pick up the faintest traces of Stiles

 

**II.**

Derek hated the spices

They were a fine scent on anyone else but they didn't seem natural on Stiles

They were bitter and smoked and too much like the land

Stiles always had an earthy scent but it was closer to the smell of dew and grass than the sharp hit of spice

It wasn't right

It wasn't Stiles

And Derek was relieved when his scent changed again

He usually hated the smell of magic but it was a vast improvement on the spices

Witches smelled peculiar, like land but not in the same nature-saturated way shifters did

They smelled of dried flowers and herbs and the scent of rain water was a little stronger with Stiles

Some of the bitter edge was taken off and just a drop of the sweetness was back and it was so much better than before

It still carried a little bitterness, underneath the dried flowers and drops of honey, it carried the scent of smoke beneath it

The best part is though that his scent started to stick again

It leaked with his magic out of his fingertips and poured off of his skin and it sank into everything around him and Derek felt so much better breathing in his own home after that

The magic was an addictive thing

It was both a blessing and a curse

It enabled Stiles with power and he felt like he could finally protect himself and the people around him

It gave him choices besides kill or be killed and it rushed into his veins and gave him the ability to heal as well as harm, wich was oddly something he took more seriously than any of the offensive spells he knew

He spent more time at Derek's apartment than ever, studying and practicing, researching and learning and practicing some more

Derek would say he was working towards some kind of endgame but he wasn't telling anyone and Derek wasn't the type to pry

There was still a bitterness to his scent under the magic too

His chemo signals were wrecked with anxiety, sadness, loneliness, anger, guilt, regret...

Derek found himself staying closer to Stiles than anyone else those days, without even realizing it

Instead of keeping to one end of the apartment and letting Stiles sit on the other he made a point of getting closer

He laid next to him on the floor reading, let Stiles stretch out on the couch and rest his feet in Derek's lap, lingered in the kitchen when the witch complained about Derek not ever having home cooked meals and being too bad at cooking to do it himself

The bitterness faded, but it was still there

As long as they had known eachother Derek had never smelled Stiles' scent so strongly his own

He had never smelled it without Scott's warm, baked bread and sugar and comfort scent laying over top of it like tin foil

Even the scent of steel and gun powder was almost gone from him now and Derek wasn't sure why, it didn't seem like he spent any less time with the sheriff

He didn't notice just how much time Stiles had spent at his apartment until Stiles managed to sneak up on him one day

The shower was going, he had headphones on, he couldn't hear the noise of movement or the steady pounding of another heartbeat and when he crossed into the living room he jumped at seeing Stiles already making dinner

Stiles didn't seem to notice the shock, or if he did he didn't comment on it

Derek inhaled, scented the air, and felt something odd settle over him at the fact that his apartment was so drenched in the scent of dried flowers, underlying herbs, a speck of honey, and a little rain water that he couldn't tell when Stiles was and wasn't there by scent alone anymore

 

**III.**

When Scott's scent came back it came back with a vengeance

Derek was never happier than he was when he saw them hugging again for the first time in months

It was so timid and fragile that Derek was afraid someone would break

Stiles holding his arms out and Scott falling into them

Gentle, so carefull

And then harder, tighter, not letting go or wavering, stronger

They were stronger

All relationships hit rough patches and the best ones came back stronger from it

Derek knew that their's was one of the best ones

As happy as he was to finally start smelling them on eachother again it was also a little unnerving

Scott's scent had taken a drastic turn as well over the last several months and it was hard to get used to, especially in combination with Stiles' new one

But what was really unnerving was just how much and how quickly their scents were blending together again

He sometimes wondered when Stiles came over if he and Scott just spent hours pressed up against eachother in a sauna, covering themselves in eachother's sweat and trying to press so close that they would morph into one witch-wolf-creature-thing instead of just being individual

The other scents around him started to integrate more into his own as well

He smelled a bit more like death and perfume and roses

A little more like electricity and warm cinnamon and something sweet like sugared milk

A pinch more of the dessert and the woods and the cool night air and leaves

He surrounded himself with the scents of the pack and they were starting to weave more and more into eachother but after a little wile, after they had finally gotten over this monumental road bump that they had all hit, things started to even out again

And all of those scents were still part of him but Stiles' was his own

It was front and center and dominated the others just like anyone's scent should

It had lost so much of the bitterness but there was still a sour tang underneath the dried flowers and the ounce more of honey and the blink-and-you-miss-it hint of musk that had started to develop, and the rain water

The scent of rain water had gotten stronger

Derek was glad for that, it was his favorite part of Stiles' scent

The Toyota was drenched in it

By the time they started road-tripping it smelled more like Stiles than his own home did

Something about it had changed too

There was an underlying scent of berries to Stiles' scent now

At first Derek didn't understand why but he came to realize soon enough that it was because Stiles was happy

It was a different kind of happy than he was used to smelling on Stiles- or had been, when Stiles used to be happy atleast somewhat frequently

It wasn't the jittered, over-sugared excited kind of happy

It was contentment, peace and soft and relaxed

It was the kind of happiness someone experienced sipping hot chocolate in the middle of a snowstorm rather than the kind a child experiences seeing snow for the first time

That kind of happiness was new on Stiles but far from unwelcome

If Derek was being honest, it was his favorite part of his scent

 

**IIII.**

It was by sheer luck that they were home the first time they had sex

Derek reveled in the fact that his bed officially smelled like Stiles by the next morning and that alone was enough to make him wake up Stiles with kisses and growls and Stiles pretending to complain about werewolf libido

Stiles smelled delicious when it came to sex

Not just in the musky, "I want you I want you I want you I want you oh God I want you so bad" kind of way (although that was more than enough alone)

But Stiles had such an interesting blend of emotions during sex and each one pinged a different aroma that culminated in such a delight of a mixture that Derek could get lost in it

Excitement and arousal and desperation that smelled like sweat and salt and summer heat

Happiness and stirred up magic and desire that wreaked of honey and just that bit of dried flowers and herbs

And strangely contentment, peace and relaxation that carried the gentle scent of early spring coming out of the winter and berries and just a pinch of sugar

But his favorite was love

The scents were the same when it came to love for Stiles- how he felt when he surged with love for someone else and how he smelled when he was overcome with the sensation that someone else loved him too

It smelled like rain water

And God from the very first moment they kissed that scent had become a bigger and bigger part of who Stiles was

That's the thing, ever since Derek knew him he's held the scent of rain water in him

He's loved people- and he loves them fully and with every single ounce of his heart and soul- but he's felt so little of it reciprocated

And now, from their first kiss, rain water has started to drown Stiles' scent

When it comes to sex it's like making love in a thunderstorm

The thunder of Stiles' heart beating in his chest and the lightening of his hands and his mouth and his- _everything_

And the rain water in his scent

It's all a drowning experience in the best way possible because he could drown in Stiles

Derek could inhale, close his eyes, and absolutely.... drown.... in this boy

The first time they made love rain water had poured out of every inch of skin on Stiles' body and overtaken every last bit of his scent

It spilled into the bed and soaked onto the floor

It captured everything and made Derek feel like he was in a summer shower, where everything was wonderfull and the water was refreshing and Derek never wanted to come back inside

He loved the excited thunderstorms that he and Stiles usually experienced

But the gentle summer showers were the best and he had been known not to let Stiles out of bed for an hour afterwards

He craved that scent

He craved it so much it was indescribable

And whenever they went somewhere new, he craved to mark it with that scent

He couldn't sleep without it settled in the sheets

He couldn't think without it in the air

He sometimes leaned over and just scented Stiles' neck, hoping to pick up traces of it

Stiles teased him, but it didn't make him stop

 

**V.**

The apartment smelled like them

It was the first time Derek noticed it but this was it alright, the apartment definitely smelled like them

And it was at such a weird interval to realize it too, Stiles asked him to get bug lotion out of the medicine cabinet and Derek teased him about being so delicious to bugs

He went into the bathroom, opened the medicine cabinet, and complained internally about how much of Stiles' crap was in here cluttering the previously almost bare cabinet

It hit him then that for Stiles to have so much medicine in his apartment he must be there a hell of alot more than Derek ever realized...

He gave Stiles the bug lotion and went off on his own, silently taking in the scent of every room and every space and everything significant about the living space

And it all smelled like Stiles

It smelled like every single part of Stiles

His happiness, his sadness, his anger...

His anxiety, his contentment, his body, his soul...

Even in the shower the scent of Stiles was so strong that Derek shuddered with every inhale

He had no idea how to process this information but he found it intoxicating

Stiles was home

He had been for a long time now

But now there was more to it than that

Now his home smelled like Stiles

It smelled like THEM

It was tangible, something Derek could touch and feel

And he was .... he was happy

The smell of rain water hung around him in a permanent stasis these days and he was always leaning into it

Always inhaling it

Always having some part of him near Stiles and now... now everything smelled like him even if he wasn't there

He never told Stiles just how much the apartment smelled like him

When the road-tripping started to come to an end and Stiles moved in though, Derek had a feeling he could tell

He acted like he owned the place and every single thing in it, for all Derek knew, this was all intentional

It WOULD be like Stiles to intentionally wander around and touch everything just to leave his scent...

It doesn't matter though, not in the long run

What matters is that his home smells like Stiles now- smells like them

And what matters even more than that, ofcourse, is the real thing

The way Derek can hold him in his arms

Press kisses across the back of his neck

Move his fingertips over each and every bit of skin

Drown himself in the scent

Stiles never understood and Derek wasn't about to explain it to him

His mother had once told him that scent was something that was different for every wolf, and discussing it with others was rude to put it mildly

So he mostly kept it to himself, what Stiles smelled like, how good it was, how much he needed it

Stiles was never unaware of just how much Derek scented him but he only brought it up occasionally to make a one-line joke out of it

It was a good fit, the two of them

They work well together and complimented eachother

And if Derek was a little bit obsessed with Stiles' scent?

Well... that's ok too

No one had to know the nitty gritty details of that one

 

**I.**

He hadn't really realized it at first but he smelled like Derek

An earthy, "I run in the woods every single day" sort of scent meeting with pine, old books, and a bit of chocolate underneath it all

He supposed it made sense though, they were practically joined at the hip these days (for more reasons than one)

It made sense that they smelled like eachother

But for some reason when Scott had said it- pointed out that he smelled like the other werewolf- it had sounded so much more ... intimate than that

Not even sexual, more like some sort of sacred bond was there that they hadn't even created intentionally

He knew there was a bond, he just never had really thought about the physical side of it

He mentioned it to Derek once, that he smelled like him, and that had been one of the best nights of Stiles' life

It was an innocent enough experiment, he figured

Wile Derek is out getting a few things for dinner he would just- _innocently_ \- adjust things a little

Namely, he got in the shower and used Derek's soap and Derek's shampoo

He dried off with Derek's towel and put on Derek's clothes

And wile he waited for the wolf of the hour to come home and make tonight a fixture in Stiles' "Best Sex" history book, he noticed the scent

For the first time he did more than just accept it as Derek's

He thought about it, reveled in

The scent of pine and dirt and clear skies and old books and a bit of chocolate beneath it all

He inhaled and cuddled the shirt closer to him

He marveled at how warm it was even though it was summer

He loved how comforting that warmth was and he inhaled again and again

And by the time Derek got home- wich wasn't too long after- instead of finding a deliciously placed Stiles on the bed in a suggestive pose and wearing nothing but Derek's clothes...

He instead found Stiles curled up under the blankets, nearly asleep, unable to stop rubbing the sleeve of Derke's shirt against his cheek

He didn't ask why or what he was doing but he had a feeling he knew anyway

He didn't bother with anything either, just kicked off his shoes and moved towards the bed

And Stiles... he was so content that he barely even noticed when Derek added his weight to the mattress

He did, however, notice the way Derek curled into him, the way he nuzzled his neck and inhaled, the way he wrapped his arms around Stiles and hugged

Hugged tightly, hugged for dear life, never let go

The way they tangled together in one big clump of limbs and skin

It was peacefull

It was a type of peace that neither of them were accustomed to

And both were desperate to keep it going

Stiles inhaled, catching the scent of Derek on himself and burrowing closer into Derek's chest

Derek inhaled and caught both of their scents, Stiles', his own, and best of all, the two of them blended together, and he held on tight

For such a heavy blend of scents, such a hodgepodge of different things, it all somehow smelled the same

It smelled like them

It smelled like home


End file.
